This volume contains papers on the ancient Christian use of potentially anti-Jewish New Testament texts. Martin Albl gives a general introduction to the opinions that ancient Christian authors held on Jews and Judaism. James Carleton Paget focuses on the Epistle of Barnabas and its critical position towards the Jewish religion. Wolfgang Grünstäudl discusses Justin Martyr's non-reception of two apparently anti-Jewish texts: Matt 27:25 (»His blood be on us and on our children«) and John 8:44 (»You are from your father the devil«). Harald Buchinger analyses Melito of Sardes' Paschal homily, in which the Jews are blamed for the death of Christ. Riemer Roukema and Hans van Loon investigate, respectively, Origen's and Cyril of Alexandria's use of NT texts in relation to the Jews and their Scriptures. Hagit Amirav and Cornelis Hoogerwerf focus on the form of polemical discourses in Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and John Chrysostom. Maya Goldberg studies Theodore of Mopsuestia's ideas on divine paideia in his commentary on Paulös epistle to the Galatians, and his view that the NT was intended to finalize – not replace – the Old Testament. Alban Massie focuses on Augustine's interpretation of John 1:17, »The Law was given through Moses, grace and the truth came through Jesus Christ.« Brian Matz deals with Jesus' warning against the leaven, i.e. teaching, of the Pharisees (Matt 16:6, 12), and Martin Meiser focuses on patristic reception of Matt 27:25. By way of comparison with ecclesiastial authors, Gerard Luttikhuizen deals with the alleged anti-Jewish interpretation of Scripture in Gnostic texts. This volume demonstrates that potentially anti-Jewish texts were indeed used against Jews, but also toward Christians, sometimes without applying them to Jews.

What is the relationship between the Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern mythology? Currid examines the evidence, arguing that the Old Testament is highly polemical as he stresses differentiation over continuity.

"This volume presents papers on the ancient Christian use of potentially anti-Jewish NT texts. Besides a general introduction and studies on particular texts (Matt 16:6, 12; 27:25; John 1:17. 8:44) attention is given to the Epistle of Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Melito of Sardes, Gnostic works, Origen, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Augustine. It is demonstrated that although potentially anti-Jewish texts were indeed used against Jews, in reality they were often directed against Christians. On a positive note, occasionally we even find appreciation of the piety of the Jews and their preservation of the Scriptures."--

Focused on the work of the renegade missionary 'Ali Quli Jadid al-Islam (d. 1734), this book contributes to ongoing debates on the nature of confessionalism, interreligious encounters, and cultural translation in early modern Muslim empires.

The works of Marcin Czechowic (1536–1613), a leader of a Polish Radical Protestant sect known as the Arians, are often referred to as proof for the Jews’ close contacts with Radical Christians and the tolerant character of interreligious debates in early-modern Poland. In “Politics of Polemics,” Magdalena Luszczynska explores Arian-Jewish relations focusing on Czechowic’s two polemics that utilise contrasting images of the Jew. The first features an invented interlocutor, a spiritually blind, tradition-bound ‘hermeneutical Jew,’ while the second engages in depth with Jewish texts, beliefs, and practices drawing on the Christian Hebraist perception of the Jews as potential teachers of ‘sacred philology.’ The works are analysed in the context of Radical Protestant theology, the tradition of Christian-Jewish polemics, and Arian leadership contest. “Politics of Polemics,” providing an English-speaking reader with an unprecedented access to this unique polemical material, is a valuable source for the historians of the Radical Reformation and of Christian–Jewish relations in early-modern Poland.

Darren M. Pollock examines the 1611 Romans hexapla commentary by the prolific Church of England preacher and controversialist Andrew Willet. While some have considered Willet's later biblical commentaries to have been a retreat from his earlier engagement in religious controversy, the author argues that his exegetical work maintained a significant element of anti-Catholic polemics, only expressed in a different genre. This polemical hermeneutic served as an organizing principle and as a means by which to clarify the presentation of traditional Reformed readings in relief against a body of Roman Catholic theology that Willet believed threatened the gospel of grace. Paulös letter provided ample opportunity for Willet to identify what is distinctive about Reformed theology – or rather, as Willet would have it, the particular ways in which »papist« dogma had diverged from the true line of Christian belief running from the Fathers through to the (truly »catholic«) Reformed church of the seventeenth century.Willet's exegesis highlights many of the polemical issues that had long been contended between Protestants and Catholics, including the authentic versions of the bible, Scripture's attributes, and principles of interpretation, as well as doctrines like justification, predestination, the assurance of salvation, and the place of good works. A close investigation into Willet's exegetical method also helps to see how an identifiable hermeneutical lens is consistent with a disciplined reading that is faithful to the text. His polemical focus does not corrupt his exegesis or force upon it meanings that are alien to the text itself; rather, his polemical hermeneutic serves to focus his attention and frame positive doctrinal statements against the sharp contrast of alternate readings.

In a comprehensive examination of how Christian scholars in the United States received, interpreted, and understood Hebrew texts and the Jewish experience, Shalom Goldman explores Hebraism's relationship to American society. By linking history, theology, and literature from the colonial period through the twentieth century, Goldman illuminates the religious and cultural roots of American interest in the Middle East. God's Sacred Tongue is structured around a sequence of biographical and intellectual portraits of individuals including Jonathan Edwards, Isaac Nordheimer, Professor George Bush (an ancestor of President George W. Bush), and twentieth-century literary critic Edmund Wilson. Since the colonial period, America has been perceived as a western Promised Land with emotional, spiritual, and physical links to the Promised Land of biblical history. Goldman gives evidence from scholarship, diplomacy, journalism, the history of higher education, and the arts to show that this perception is linked to the role Hebrew and the Bible have played in American cultural history. The book's final section takes up the story of American Christian Zionism, among whose Protestant adherents political Zionism found much of its strongest support. Religious and cultural figures such as William Rainey Harper and Reinhold Niebuhr are among those who exemplify the centuries-old ties between America, the Land of Promise, and Israel, the Promised Land.

This book focuses on polemical religious texts of Iberia's long fifteenth century, a period characterized by both social violence and cultural exchange. It highlights how polemical texts often reveal the interconnected nature of social and cultural intimacy, promoting dialogue and cultural transfer.

What is a Love Feast? How did the early church celebrate the Love Feast? How might Christians today celebrate the Love Feast? In Recovering the Love Feast, Paul Stutzman addresses these questions, offering a unique blend of liturgical history and practical theology. Part I outlines the history of the Love Feast, noting its prevalence in early church worship, its gradual decline, and its reemergence in the practices of several Pietist groups (e.g., the Moravians, Methodists, and Brethren). Particular focus is given to five elements of the celebration, that is: eucharistic preparation, feetwashing, the fellowship meal, the holy kiss, and the Eucharist proper. In Part II, Stutzman argues that the Love Feast is a valuable Christian practice and a celebration worth recovering in those traditions that may have forgotten the feast. Rather than prescribing a specific method for celebrating the Love Feast, Stutzman proposes that there are five key disciplines that today's Love Feasts should embody: submission, love, confession, reconciliation, and thanksgiving. This book encourages Christians from a range of traditions to experiment with reclaiming the Love Feast, with the hope that each celebration serves as an act of worship to God and an authentic expression of Christian discipleship.